Mangás: IC in a Sunflower

Olá!

Se você gostou de Chobits, vá atrás desse mangá! Mas nem se iluda que este aqui não é echii não XD~

"Bonecas vivas" (andróides, tá) são usadas como serviçais. Mas parece que a inteligência artificial de umas se desenvolvem mais que de outras...

IC in a Sunflower (Japanese: 集積回路のヒマワリ Hepburn: Shūsekikairo no Himawari) is a science fiction josei (targeted towards women) manga written and illustrated by Mitsukazu Mihara. It is a collection of seven, unrelated short stories which appeared in the Japanese manga magazine Feel Young from 1994 to 1997. The stories were then collected into a bound volume in Japan by Shodensha on October 18, 1997. Tokyopop licensed IC in a Sunflower for an English-language release in North America, and published it on January 2, 2007. IC in a Sunflower was positively received by English-language critics and readers. Reviewers identified various themes and literary elements in the collection, and generally enjoyed the short stories and art.

The seven short stories consist of Mihara's 1994 debut "Keep Those Condoms Away From Our Kids" (ゴムのいらない子供たち "Gomu no Iranai Kodomo-tachi"), set in a future in which an AIDS vaccine destroyed the desire for sex; "The Iron Maiden" (リッサの鉄の柩), which focuses on a young woman haunted by her childhood sexual abuse; "The Sunflower Quality Of An Integrated Circuit" (集積回路のヒマワリ), which deals with the events surrounding a couple and their robotic housekeeper; "The Other Side Of The Rose Wire" (バラ鉄線のむこう側), which centers on a boy in love with a girl caring for her elderly father; "Fish Out Of Water" (籠の魚), which revolves around a captured mermaid; "Mister Mineral" (鉱物君), which features a disturbed college student; and "Alive" (あなたは生きている), which is set in a future where human cloning is practiced.

IC in a Sunflower consists of seven short stories, a format that Mitsukazu Mihara frequently uses for her narrative. The stories are unrelated to each other, each featuring a different protagonist. The stories of IC in a Sunflower sometimes incorporate a twist ending.

"Keep Those Condoms Away From Our Kids" (ゴムのいらない子供たち "Gomu no Iranai Kodomo-tachi"?) revolves around a future in which teenagers do not have a desire for sex, as a result of an AIDS vaccine. The story focuses on Irori, who is taught about sex in school and encouraged by his parents, but ultimately neither understands nor has a desire for sex.

"The Iron Maiden" (リッサの鉄の柩) focuses on a woman who struggles to create a happy life for herself despite the childhood sexual abuse done to her by her older brother. In her backstory, her parents refused to believe her as a child about her brother's abuse towards her, and upset, she bites her doll and develops a compulsive habit of biting. Later, as an adult, she settles down with a husband and child, but after discovering her battered doll which triggers memories of her unhappy childhood, she bites her child.

"The Sunflower Quality Of An Integrated Circuit" (集積回路のヒマワリ) centers on Vanilla, an android who keeps house for an old man married to a younger, unfaithful woman. The man treats Vanilla well, seeing her as a daughter, and the two have tea in the garden; his wife, in contrast, abuses her and allows her lover to do the same. After the old man reveals his plans for divorce, his wife murders him and orders Vanilla to bury the remains. Vanilla obeys, although she recognizes that the remains were of the old man. The story ends with Vanilla in the garden, keeping her promise to the man by having tea when the sunflowers bloom.

In "The Other Side Of The Rose Wire" (バラ鉄線のむこう側), a boy falls in love from afar with a girl taking care of her elderly father. After she fails to appear with her father one day, he finds her dressed in mourning clothes with a smile on her face and burning the basket she kept with her.

"Fish Out Of Water" (籠の魚?) focuses on a captured mermaid and her refusal to speak. Her captor attempts to pull her out of the bathtub where she had been living, and she remembers that she was a girl whose mother had tried to drown her and herself in a lake years ago. Her mother died, but she survived and imagined herself as a mermaid. She then wakes up from her delusion, finding herself in a hospital instead of a bathtub, and can begin to recover.

"Mister Mineral" (鉱物君) revolves around a college student, who collects rocks and is tormented by his memories of dissecting a frog. After learning that his girlfriend is pregnant, he becomes upset and tosses her into a busy highway.

Set in a future where human cloning is practiced, "Alive" (あなたは生きている) focuses on Tou, a clone sent to live in an orphanage of humans as part of an assignment. There, he meets a cheerful girl named Riika and after some time, she is taken to be killed for her organs. It is then revealed that Tou only thought he was a clone.

In IC in a Sunflower and all her works, Mihara uses character designs incorporating Lolita fashion—a clothing style influenced by the Rococo style and the Victorian and Edwardian eras. She explained that that particular style conveys the duality of her characters: "It's about showing the delicate balance of 'delicate, yet strong,' or 'selfish and wild, yet lustful.'" Mihara has been involved with the shaping of the Gothic Lolita style—a subset of the Lolita fashion which incorporates dark colors—through her artwork; she illustrated the first eight covers of the fashion magazine-book Gothic & Lolita Bible and later returned to illustrating the covers with the twenty-seventh volume in fall 2007.

Reviewers have identified multiple themes and literary elements in the manga. According to Mania Entertainment's Nadia Oxford, Mihara uses minimal dialogue and narrative, instead conveying emotion through the behavior of the characters. IGN's A.E. Sparrow stated that the theme of the stories was the meaning of humanity, while Oxford wrote that the manga contains "themes of dystopian society and the fragile nature of the human mind." Sparrow thought that mental instability figures prominently in the stories. According to him, "Keep Those Condoms Away From Our Kids" deals with "the nature of sex," while Oxford believed that the story raises the question of the declining birth rate of Japan and other developed countries. Jason Thompson, author of Manga: The Complete Guide, considered "The Sunflower Quality of an Integrated Circuit" to have elements from film noir. By featuring a mute mermaid in "Fish Out Of Water", Mihara makes an implicit reference to the fairytale "The Little Mermaid", according to Oxford. The treatment of the elderly, children, or the unborn is the focus of some of the stories, according to Sparrow. Sparrow and Dan Grendall of Ain't It Cool News speculated that "Alive" focuses on the meaning of living.

FONTE: Wikipedia

Tenham um bom dia!